


Even Artus cannot hide him

by Kartaylir



Series: Black Codex: Files Not Found [2]
Category: Star Wars Legends: The Old Republic (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-21
Updated: 2019-11-21
Packaged: 2021-02-07 07:42:59
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 492
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21454474
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kartaylir/pseuds/Kartaylir
Summary: Cipher Nine finally confronts Darth Jadus, and has far too much blood on her hands before Jadus even makes his offer.
Series: Black Codex: Files Not Found [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1521593
Comments: 2
Kudos: 6





	Even Artus cannot hide him

Jadus is toying with her. With his newest Cipher. His pace is slow, ominous; his lightsaber held up before him as if to dismiss all efforts she might make. Panicked voices come in from colonies and worlds as the eradicators strike. So many new deaths she's brought now, a price paid to slow Jadus. She'll weigh it later. For now, the scent of terror fills the ship from those the dark lord has already broken. 

From his words Jadus perhaps thinks that if she has enough of that smell then it will turn to something sweet. That she’ll find sudden joy in the chorus of screams.

“So much trouble to recruit me, and yet you couldn’t think of any temptation to offer,” she says as she ducks out from behind one battered console. Fires one quick shot from her Charric pistol. Then she slides back into her shelter as she feels a sudden burst of rage from Jadus.

That prompts a moment of bitter amusement. Sith are always so used to weapons fire they can deflect.

Lightning crackles around her, electronics hissing. There's a scent of burnt cloth and hair, one of her shoulders has gone numb from it. Nerves burned away as well.

His heavy footsteps begin again. She’ll have to move soon.

Her voice is a whisper, just enough for the implant to hear. “Vector, Kaliyo. Tell me you’re ready.”

Silence. Bruises aching. The closer hiss of a lightsaber’s blade.

Then she hears Watcher Two, another voice Jadus cannot overhear. “You’ll need to move him to the center of the bridge and then activate the ray shielding. The fleet is on their way.”

She’s on the wrong end of the bridge. Too much of a gap between bits of cover. And yet Jadus is in no hurry to end this. No hurry at all.

_Play with your prey_, she thinks. Fires her weapon again, unseeing, then darts forward. A step, another, quick and weaving. Closer. Closer.

She barely senses his intent before she’s thrown backward, spine aching at the impact, displays flickering beneath her. Glass and plastic crack from the force. No, not just. 

But she can’t inventory the wounds, not yet. A moan escapes through the taste of blood on her lips. 

Jadus stalks forward, triumph radiating from behind his mask. There’s no need for her to fake terror now.

“Join me,” he says again. “I’ll even let you kill her. I know how much you despise Darth Azoi.”

She curls on the broken glass, barely moving, screaming or crying or something in-between. Jadus takes one step toward her, another.

She slams the ray shield controls.

“You should have started with that,” she murmurs, as the cage surrounds him. Her breath is layered with a mouthful of blood. “Watcher—Watcher, I’ve got him. Get me a medic.”

The Imperial Fleet appears on the viewscreen, and everything after that is whispers and fragments. Such is far more complicated than death.


End file.
